CSCU
Joins the CULedger Initiative.
Robert
Hackney Named to the CULedger Steering Committee.

TAMPA, Fla. (September 8, 2016)Card Services for Credit Unions (CSCU), one of the country’s leading
CUSOs, announced its commitment today to the recently formed CULedger
research-to-action initiative spearheaded by the Mountain West Credit Union
Association, CUNA, and Best Innovation Group.

“While many people
have heard of Bitcoin, the electronic currency, it is the underlying blockchain
or distributed ledger technology that has captured the interest of the largest
financial institutions. Where we in the United States are familiar with a
central bank approach to financial transactions involving the Federal Reserve,
distributed ledger technology is a peer-to-peer, decentralized technology for
managing and recording financial transactions,” says CSCU president Robert Hackney who also accepted
an invitation to serve on the CULedger Steering Committee.

“Because
transaction verification is handled through state of the art cryptography and
consensus among multiple computers, it is assumed to be immune to fraud while
improving the speed and efficiency at which transactions are settled. It
is clear that the largest financial institutions in the U.S. and the world
believe in the technology as evidenced by their membership in the R3 blockchain
technology consortium. Further evidence of the potential of distributed
ledger technology lies in the fact Bank of America has filed for approximately
35 blockchain related patents. As a result, CSCU supports this credit
union Blockchain initiative,” Hackney explains.

Tom Davis, CSCU’s senior vice
president of finance and technology, points out that distributed ledger technology
(DLT) has the potential to be an entirely new platform for the next generation
of transactional applications that streamline processes while increasing trust
and security. “Though it’s early in terms of the technology’s evolution and
with a number of challenges still to be addressed, remaining competitive in
tomorrow’s financial marketplace will require new methods and protocols based
on DLT,” Davis adds.
For more information on the
blockchain distributed ledger technology, view CSCU’s thought leadership story
at thepaymentsreview.com/blockchain or download an informative whitepaper at CSCU Whitepaper: BitCoin and BlockChain.
About CULedger:
CULedger, formerly known as
CUblockchain, is an assembled consortia of credit unions, CUSOs, and credit
union leagues that collectively are working to prepare credit unions for the
future.Preparation will include
developing proof-of-concept projects based on a permissioned, distributed,
shared ledger platform that ultimately can provide a low-risk entry point for
credit unions expanded use of DLT.
About
CSCU:
With nearly 2100 members,
CSSU is one of the largest credit union services organizations (CUSOs) in the
United States.Approximately 40% of the
nation’s credit unions rely on CSCU to provide consultation, thought
leadership, products and services that enable credit unions to compete in the
rapidly evolving payments industry.
CSCU’s partnership with its members keeps their card programs among
their institution’s highest return on assets.